Drew's Stuff

A generation ago, one of the spiritual giants was a man named A.W. Tozer. One of his best-known books is, Our Utmost For His Highest.

A friend sent me the following devotion on the Holy Spirit, written by Tozer:

The power of the Spirit will not be given to any mincing assent to pneumatological truth.

((What a way to start ... translated, it means the power of the Spirit isn't given to someone who just has a "head knowledge" of doctrine, without a "heart relationship".))

The Holy Spirit cares not at all whether we write Him into our creeds in the back of our hymnals; He waits for our emphasis. When He gets into the thinking of the teachers He will get into the expectation of the hearers. When the Holy Spirit ceases to be incidental and again becomes fundamental, the power of the Spirit will be asserted once more among the people called Christians.

The idea of the Spirit held by the average church member is so vague as to be nearly nonexistent. When he thinks of the matter at all he is likely to try to imagine a nebulous substance like a wisp of invisible smoke which is said to be present in churches and to hover over good people when they are dying.

Frankly he does not believe in any such thing, but he wants to believe something, and not feeling up to the task of examining the whole truth in the light of Scripture he compromises by holding belief in the Spirit as far out from the center of his life as possible, letting it make no difference in anything that touches him practically.

This describes a surprisingly large number of earnest persons who are sincerely trying to be Christians. 

Prayer: Lord, deliver me from untrue impressions of the Spirit. May I realize anew that He is a real Person, indwelling and empowering me and deserving of my worship and obedience. Amen.

Tozer on the Almighty God: A 366-Day Devotional.